Speed Championship 2013 off to flying start

• Ghafoor shines in Formula Racing

The racing for the year 2013 began with the ‘Speed Championship 2013’ completing its first round at the Pannala International Circuit on Sunday. The Championship organized and conducted by the Asian Motor Racing Club with the blessings of Sri Lanka Automobile Sport; the governing body for racing.

The day began with the McLarens Formula 1300cc event specially conducted for the young drivers who are aspiring to be future Formula drivers. These drivers came through after a hectic training in Go Karting and Pro Karting at the ‘Speed Drome’ in Battaramulla with Ameer Ghafoor who was in pole position, Liam Lawrence and Kyle Crosland the youngest at 12 plus. They were really outstanding in their driving skills and three of them were seen on the podium thrice.

Amer ended up the winner in both race one and two, while Liam and Kyle were the respective runners up.

Ashan Silva who clearly proved that he is one of the country’s top class drivers last year by grabbing three national awards kept up to his reputation as the best driver, being the biggest attraction on this day specially in the SL-H 1600cc Class.

The race was evenly contested by these two drivers with Dilan Seneviratne taking an early lead while Ashan had a late start. Ashan was the biggest threat to Dilan as the two of them were engaged in an epic fight all through the race. Ashan waited for the right opportunity to go past the leader Dilan and managed to do so only on the third lap but failed to hold on to this advantage as he came across technical problems on his machine leaving him to be content with a runner-up position.

The other event where these two drivers engaged once again in the SL-GT up to 3500cc Class which was also an interesting affair. Ashan was in pole position and was off in a flash, giving allowing no room for his main rival but soon Dilan caught up and held on to the top spot for short while never-say-die Ashan got to the lead and kept on moving smoothly taking the flag and the win in style.

Seven Motor Cycle events too were conducted with the assistance of Sri Lanka Motor Cycle Club. These too were of great importance to the large gathering of spectators as most of the motor cycle events were contested by young riders. This circuit is one that specifically gives the young drivers and riders an opportunity to get on to the track.

In fact it should be noted that the importers of Bajaj and Yamaha came forward to organize two events for their popular ‘Bajaj’ Three Wheelers and ‘Yamaha’ Motor Cycles. This opportunity will also help as an encouragement for riders to enter the field of Motor Racing in the future.

One of the most interesting instances of the event was the entry of brothers Jaden and Aaron for the Group ‘SM’ Super Motard Open event where veteran racer Ananda Wedisinghe was in contention. Though tough riders were in front the two brothers aged ten and eight never gave up and were seen fighting all the way.

In the other Motor Cycle events Chathura Madusanka was the only rider to have won two events on this opening meet for the year 2013.

Susantha Gunewardene, Shantha Surweeera, Michael Wijesuriya, K. Parameshwaram and Irfan fuard recorded victories in the car events, while Prabath Peiris, Dananjaya, Chathura Madusanka and Yasas Madusanka Somaratne registered wins in their respective Motorcycle categories.

        Pix by Santha Rathnayaka